For current volunteers

Credit: Roger Ratcliffe

All you need to know as a volunteer

We've collected all the information you need as a valued volunteer for Yorkshire Wildlife Trust on this page. You can also find our latest volunteer news and updates, and make sure you're subscribed to volunteer emails.

Volunteer handbook

All our volunteers will be sent a handbook when they register, but you can also download the handbook below. The handbook provides key information about volunteering with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and what you can expect.

Read our volunteer handbook

Coronavirus (Covid-19)

We have been working really hard alongside all our volunteer managers and the wider Yorkshire Wildlife Trust team to start the gradual process of returning our volunteering activities. You should have received an update and timetable from the Volunteering Support Team outlining the next few months. Once your volunteer manager has everything in place to safely welcome you back they will contact you to discuss your return.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact your volunteer manager or the Volunteering Support Team, you can email us at volunteering@ywt.org.uk and will do our very best to respond to you as quickly as possible

Practical conservation calendar

Practical conservation task days during Covid-19

We have had to make a few changes to how we run our practical conservation task days during Covid-19. At this present time, we are unable to recruit any new practical conservation volunteers and this calendar is for the use of existing practical conservation volunteers only. There are several reasons why we have taken this decision, one of which is we must keep group sizes smaller than usual to allow us to manage task days in a Covid secure way to keep everyone safe.

As soon as we can open up practical conservation task days to new volunteers, we will update this section with details.

For existing registered volunteers, please take note of the new guidance for attending practical conservation task days during Covid-19, details of which can be found on the front cover of the Practical Conservation Calendar.

View the calendar

Volunteer training programme

Due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, we have cancelled all our training up until the end of 2020. As and when training can be rescheduled or re-formatted to work online we will update volunteers in our regular emails, or by contacting those people who had booked on directly.

We have an extensive volunteer training programme that is open to all our active and registered volunteers and voluntary trainees. The training programme reflects the diversity of volunteer roles we have at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and offers courses that will fulfil the training requirements you may need for certain roles, or to perhaps develop your skills further.

The courses are free for our active and registered volunteers with the exception of First Aid and Outdoor Incident Management Courses, these courses are only available for volunteers or voluntary trainees that require the training for their role and where the cost of the course has been agreed with your volunteer manager.